Roman Bread And Circuses

Ancient Rome is one of the greatest and most influential societies in the history of the world. From the basic rules of how the Roman Empire is set up to the infrastructures in the city, the strict hierarchy of Roman social structure can be reflected clearly all over the whole ancient Rome. In fact that “public architecture presents people with the official view of a society and provides the background against which its individual markers live their lives.”1 With the great desire of Roman for entertainment and their special taste for blood, the amphitheatre is considered as the most popular and most representative type of the entertainment building in the ancient Roman culture. And

Early gladiator fights took place in funerals of wealthy Romans, but their main purpose was to give the people a good show. As the gladiator games grew in popularity, the funeral ritual tradition was eventually dropped and the games were staged for what they were—a display of wealth and entertainment for the masses. By approximately 90 B.C., gladiator games began taking place in circuses and forums. Circuses were elongated arenas with a spine down the middle, designed for chariot racing. In a circus, the audience had good seats but a poor view of the event. Since circuses were built for chariot races, their long and narrow shape made it difficult for someone sitting on one end to see an event going on at the other end. A good example of a circus is the Circus Maximus. This structure was the first and largest circus built by the Romans and it could hold up to 250,000 people. Forums were open gathering places in the center of a town, often with a monument in the middle. Audiences watching a gladiator event in a forum still experienced problems because the ground was flat, so only the people in the first few rows could see anything. Over the years, the gladiator games became even more elaborate to the point where some fights included fights with wild animals. So the Romans now had a problem on their hands: how to fit a large number of people in a way that let them see everything that was

Roman architecture has influenced our modern-day society in many ways. One of the ways is by the construction of the Roman Colosseum in 72 A.D. The Roman Colosseum was the first major stadium or amphitheater to ever be built. Without the planning, construction, and techniques used for Roman Colosseum, we would not have some of the famous stadiums and amphitheaters that exist today.

The policy “bread and circuses” is a system made up during the Pax Romana. To keep the people of Rome ignorant to ensure that they will never rebel against their own government when the Roman Republic turn into an Empire. The Roman Empire will keep the people distracted by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles. The Roman Empire would pay for bread and circuses by collecting taxes from the people.

The Roman Colosseum was built throughout 70-80 A.D. It was a large, circular stone arena and was a very popular attraction in Rome. The Colosseum was used as a place of entertainment for the Romans (Doc 5). The Colosseum was the entertainment center of Rome and it was used as an amphitheater, arena, held gladiatorial events and people socialized there. The Colosseum influenced the U.S because in the U.S we have entertainment centers including movie theaters, wrestling matches, and sports games where people socialize and are entertained.

Entertainment was essential to daily life in Ancient Rome.  According to Juvenal1, it seemed that all Romans were interested in was "bread and circuses,"  and with theatres, amphitheatres, gambling, drama and public baths galore, the Romans never seemed to get bored.

It was a form of entertainment for the people to go to coliseums to watch the gladiators fight and kill each other. They would pay to watch slaves fight and see the death of a lot of them... Gladiators would be seen as club rites today. It was a part of the Romans daily life to go watch people die... In these days, that type of stuff would be unacceptable and very, very cruel. A lot of the Romans enjoyed too go watch the gladiators fight each other to death, but other thought it as supposed to be

Entertainment in Roman society, specifically in Pompeii and Herculaneum, was very significant, which can be seen in the large number of buildings in both of these towns that serve the purpose of entertaining the Roman citizens. One of the most notable of these buildings was the Amphitheatre in Pompeii, as it one of the earliest built Roman amphitheatre and is one of the oldest that still stands today. From paintings, such as source A, a Fresco painting found in the house of Actius Anicetus, it can be made clear that gladiatorial matches were held in the amphitheatre in Pompeii, which was a main source of entertainment for the people of the time. The matches in the amphitheatre were largely popular, as it accommodated the people of all classes, with 35 rows of seating, being able to hold 20,000 people, which can be seen in the remaining structure of the building today, as it was so well preserved, even during the eruption of Vesuvius in

In 79 AD Vespasian came to his final days, dying before the construction of the Colosseum was complete. His son, Titus, was to take over his role as emperor. Titus, new in his role, knew that he too must impress the people as his father had done, and so he announced the opening of the Colosseum would occur one year later. This seemed like an impossible goal for the constructers, and Titus had planned an extravagant opening to ensure that none would think he was less visionary than his father. Upon the opening of the great amphitheatre there were one hundred days of fighting. These one hundred days involved the slaughter of an unfathomable number of animals and men; one source tells us that five thousand animals were killed in the first day. The writer Cassius Dio tells us just how extravagant the opening may have been;

The Etruscans were famous for emphasizing circus-like elephants and things like them. Most Roman theatre was very parodied and exaggerated during the 1st century BC. Slowly the show 's got more and more realistic as time went on.

The construction of the Colosseum was a propaganda exercise with the aim of pleasing the citizens which meant that the emperor kept himself in power. The emperors bought their popularity through free entertainment and corn for the spectators which lead to the emperor buying the peoples votes (Hopkins, 2011). The magnificent amphitheatre entertained the roman public becoming an international emblem and propaganda tactic used by emperors to improve their political careers.

The Colosseum was first built in 70-80 CE in Regio IV Templum Pacis, which is in Rome Italy today. Measuring some 620 by 513 feet, the Colosseum was the largest amphitheater in the Roman world. Unlike many earlier amphitheaters, which had been dug into hillsides to provide adequate support, the Colosseum was a freestanding structure made of stone and concrete. The Colosseum could seat up to 80 thousand people. The Colosseum was a gift to the Roman people from Emperor Vespasian.

     The arches of the Coloseum allowed great ventilation, stability, and passageways to keep the crowd comfortable all day. The most amazing construction had nothing to do with the show. The Romans had actually constructed a roof for the Coloseum. The roof was like a retractable sail covering most of the audience during the current event.

The Roman Colosseum, a colossal amphitheater, was built in the first century under Flavian's rule. Many events such as gladiator games, beast fights, naval battles, and much more took place inside the huge elliptical arena. People of all ages and classes attended these well-known spectacles. The Colosseum is a huge Roman architectural achievement and the fact that it is still standing today only amplifies the importance of this structure. Hundred of thousands of people attended the ancient games, and even more continue to visit the arena today.

The Circus has been an extremely popular form of entertainment during the 20th century. The circus creates an image of drifters and dreamers in the mind. In the 20th century the emphasis on spectacle continued on 3 ring formats.